I’m fond of saying that now that I’m married myself, I love going to weddings. I don’t consider myself a great party thrower, and so while I managed to plan a lovely event for my husband and myself seven years ago, I certainly didn’t relish the process. So these days when I’m invited to a wedding, it reminds me that I made it — I don’t have to throw another celebration in honor of that unless I really want to, and I can attend someone else’s wedding and just enjoy myself, stress-free.

My party planning days aren’t over – recently my oldest daughter turned 4, and I found myself assembling goody bags for her birthday party. And while stuffing crazy straws and temporary tattoos into those bags I thought about how the favors we give to guests at our weddings — or the welcome baskets for out-of-town guests — aren’t really all that different from birthday party goody bags, perhaps minus the stickers and glitter lip gloss.

This brings me to the point of this blog. I apologize for the lengthy preamble, but have you thought about how perfect the gift of tea is? Giving someone tea is always a considerate gesture. To get on my marketing high horse for a minute, it’s the gift of relaxation, a refined beverage enjoyed around the world. And (to dismount the marketing high horse) if the gift recipient doesn’t love tea like you do, they always know someone who does like tea, making it the perfect re-gift.

Consider our conveniently packaged Tea Duo, for instance. In case you haven’t met it yet, it’s a small pack containing two sachets — one of Organic Assam, and one of Organic Better Rest Blend. The Assam breakfast tea is our bestselling black tea grown in Assam, India, and is delicious with or without milk. Organic Better Rest Blend is a soothing mix of chamomile, peppermint, hops and valerian — ingredients grown in Europe known for their relaxing effects. “The Tea Duo provides the perfect balance of energy and relaxation, almost like yin and yang,” says our CEO and founder, Richard Rosenfeld. “You can start your day with Assam, feeling energized and capable of taking on what the day may bring, and you can end your day with Better Rest … literally.”

The Tea Duo is the smallest sampler we offer and would make a great addition to a welcome basket, or even a favor for all of the guests at your wedding.

Our sachets come in 18 different colors to match any wedding decor. But who am I kidding – probably one of the most important things you’re considering when planning your wedding, from hors d’oeuvres to décor, is keeping everything within a theme. What’s handy about two leaves tea in this regard is that our individually packaged sachets come in a broad variety of colors to match what you’re doing. Eighteen different colors, in fact, so it might be difficult to choose!

We’re posting some photos here that demonstrate how giving the gift of our tea can be both tasty and aesthetically pleasing. And relaxing with a cup of organic tea will probably sound just right to most of your guests after they enjoy the excitement of your big day.

So tell us, does including tea sound like a good idea on a wedding day? Or you "smug marrieds": tell us if you did include tea on your nuptial weekend?

Our Complete Sachet Sampler is one of each of our 18 sachets — and it's pretty, too!

It's a well-known fact in my family that once you publicly declare your love for something, anything, you're going to start getting gifts during the holidays that directly relate to that thing you love. Somewhat embarrassing disclosure: in middle school and high school I develop an almost unhealthy obsession with tropical fish. (Don't judge. This is years ago, people.) As a result, my family knew that anything with a tropical fish motif -- posters, pillows, jewelry -- was great gift fodder.

To this day, this tradition continues in my family. I told my sister I love the color red, she's given me red bracelets and a red reusable tote bag. Everyone in our family knows what my mother collects, so it's quite normal for her to be given a new glass paperweight or set of brass candlesticks. And as far as we know, she loves it.

But I'll get to the point: This is what is great about being a tea drinker, and knowing other tea drinkers. Choosing gifts for tea drinkers is not only easy, it's quite fun! We're presenting our 2011 Gift Guide for Tea Drinkers, with fun stuff we love for the tea drinker in your life, and if you *are* a tea drinker, feel free to print this out and leave it on your kitchen counter, perhaps with "HINT, HINT" written across the top of it, for your family members to stumble across.

Lots of great info crammed into this book for all tea lovers

1. Think the tea lover in your life knows it all? Think again! Check out "The Tea Enthusiast's Handbook -- A Guide to the World's Best Tea" by Mary Lou Heiss, where they can get a brainfull of information on tea and its origins, brewing techniques, the vast varieties of tea in the world, and really useful stuff like how to store tea at home. It dates to 2010, but in the tea world, this stuff doesn't go out of style.

2. If you're reading this, you've already discovered two leaves and a bud tea, but have you discovered *all* of our sachets, and do you wonder if you'll ever get a chance to try them all? Or perhaps you want to introduce a friend to two leaves tea. We think our complete sachet sampler is the perfect gift! For a very affordable $14.95, it's all 18 different kinds of sachets that we offer, including black, green, white and herbal teas.

3. The people at the Tea Appreciation Society really love tea, and as a result, they sell some great items that the tea lovers in your life will absolutely need. There are stickers, mugs, t-shirts and all that, but this is our favorite item.

4. I sometimes wonder what I used to do with my free time before Etsy. If you haven't been to this website that specializes in all things handmade and vintage, be forewarned that you can kill a lot of time trolling around there. That said, when you go there and search for tea-related goods, you'll see everything you didn't realized you (or your tea-loving friend) needed! A good sample:

5. Maybe you've already discovered these, but they're pretty new: Our Tea Duo is a little package including one sachet each of Organic Assam Breakfast and Organic Better Rest Blend. See? A tea that's perfect for morning, and one that's a great accompaniment to your peaceful evening. They fit perfectly in a stocking, we might note.

6. When we brainstormed a few gifts, marketing coordinator Christy Garfield said, "Maybe look around for a tea gag gift." Well, I did go looking for one, and found this tea bag holder/spoon rest that's quite functional ... and it's in the shape of a dead armadillo. But maybe the tea lover in your life lives in Texas?

7. I recommended this last year, but I never give up on a good gift suggestion: Some of your serious tea-loving friends may turn up their noses at sachets, no matter how much you try to convince them that our pyramid-shaped sachets are full of quality, full-leaf tea. So, maybe surprise those friends with our very unique selection of loose leaf teas! There's probably something we have that they haven't tried, whether that's Organic Keemun Congou, Organic Lavender Earl Grey or Organic Chamomile.

8. And if you've followed the suggestion above, don't forget to get your friend a trustworthy teascale (now on sale!) to measure out the perfect 2.5 grams of tea, no matter what they're drinking.

9. If you can't find a tea infuser on this list that makes a tea-loving friend of yours chuckle ... well, we're afraid you might have really humorless friends. (I bet you didn't think you'd learn that reading a tea blog, did you?)

10. Finally, a cool gadget for the tea drinker who is really short on desk space (who isn't?)

The gift-giving season isn't the easiest time of year for many of us. It's not full of "I found the perfect gift that will tell you just how much I love you" moments. Often times you experience more "I'm so stressed out; I hope you forgive me for this less than perfect gift" moments. (Unless you count the time I designed a beer stein for my dad's homecrafted brew. That was perfect.)

Richard, founder and owner of two leaves and a bud tea. co., passed out some small gifts to those of us who work in the office. We each got a tea sachet-holder, for lack of a better term, made by a local potter. Maybe Richard is sick of watching us over-steeping our tea at our desks, because we don't have good places to put a used sachet that we might want to use again. But it was a good gift. See photo, at left.

I started thinking how easy it can be to buy a gift for a tea lover. Sure, there's tea, but then there are plenty of tea accoutrement to outfit your tea lover with — electric kettle, tea pot, brew basket for loose tea, mugs, honey spoon, and on and on. My favorite page on our website is the one that describes "Tea Gifts and Goodies."

Bess, Gigi, Lindsay and Richard open a package from Sri Lanka

I know it's a little late (Christmas is the day after tomorrow, in terms of when I'm posting this) to be telling you where to get great gifts for the tea lover in your life. There's no doubt, however, that I'll be reminding you about tea gifts for Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, Flag Day, Columbus Day ... you get the picture.

On Monday we received a delightful box of gifts from the factory in Sri Lanka where some of our tea is packed. There was a picture book on Sigiriya (a beautiful archaeological site), floating candles and pretty note cards (see photo, at right). What's certainly true about the gift-giving season is that giving and receiving is a gesture of a treasured relationship.

Happy holidays from all of us. Wherever you are, we hope you're celebrating the spirit of the season with a great cuppa tea clutched in one hand. Cheers!

It snowed in the Roaring Fork Valley this morning, so we tromped outside to take this holiday photo. From left, Jen (who now lives in New Jersey), Naomi, Gigi, Richard, Lindsay, Kelly and Bess.

Jen, our head of customer service here at the TWO LEAVES HQ, just returned from getting married on the east coast and brought us back photos of our tea travelers at her wedding! What a colorful addition to the table decorations! All the guests loved their favors. Mix and match to get just the right color combo to match your wedding color theme. Looks like we missed a great party! Luckly we get to go to the Colorado party in September!